This help page explains the editing process and pitfalls involved in making changes to the different namespaces in OmegaWiki. If this page has not been translated into your native language, please consider helping us with that.

Before you create a new DefinedMeaning you must make sure it does not exist yet.

Check that the word itself does not exist (enter the word on the search tool on the left and click "Go")

Check that synonyms of the word with the same meaning does not exist

Also check for translations of the word in other languages you know (English, Spanish, German, French and Dutch are the language having the most words defined)

If any of the searched expresison exist: look whether the definitions don't match.

If a DefinedMeaning does exist you can add definitions, translations etc. to it

If it does not exist, a new DefinedMeaning can be created in several ways

Search again for the word, e.g. "g00g00"

if the word does not exist, a page proposes you to Create the expression "Expression:g00g00". Click on the red link.

if the word already exists (in another language, or with another meaning), but you want to add a new meaning

edit the page in the "Expression" namespace

add a definition in the "New exact meaning" section, at the end of a language section (if there are already definitions for that language) or at the bottom of the page (if defining the word for a new language).

Don't forget to fill in the language of the expression (combobox on red background) and the language of the definition (another combobox).

Choose the language you wish to translate it into from the Language drop down box (after the symbol), and put the translation in the Text box. Follow the source language as closely as possible while still creating good, grammatical sentences in the target language.

Please do note that the task here is to translate the Definition given by the defining language, not to create a good definition based on any word translated into your language! If you do not agree with the definition, you can discuss it in the talk page associated to the DefinedMeaning.

If you want to modify a definition because it has not been well translated from another language: please go ahead!

If you want to modify a definition because in your opinion it does not reflect the meaning of the concept well: then please discuss it first in the talk page associated to the DefinedMeaning, or in the general discussion page Meta:Questions about words. Explain why the current definition is not good, and if you can, suggest a better definition.

In the DefinedMeaning talk page, you can mark the problem by adding a {{Attention|<comment>|DefinedMeanings}} to the Defined Meaning talk page. The DefinedMeaning page (and consequently its talk page) can be reached by clicking the link in the heading.

When a definition is modified, it has to be translated in the other languages so that they all have the same definition. For that purpose, the template {{outofsync|eng}}, {{outofsync|fra}}... has to be used in the talk page for each language that needs to be translated.

We have a use in connection with the OLPC Project, that is to add an alternative definition in words that are less complex and more geared towards the world, understanding capabilities and the average experiences of children using computers, when the definition itself is considered very complex, scientific, or requires excessive background knowledge, and thus not well suited for a Children's Dictionary. These alternative definitons are being marked as Source: OLPC Children's Dictionary.

It can also be used to enter for example definitions from Open Source dictionaries.

To add a new synonym or translation to a DefinedMeaning, whether it is the first translation into the language in question, or another synonym, go to the bottom of the section Synonyms and translations, choose language (after the symbol) in the unnamed drop down box and enter the desired word.

If you want to add several translations at once, you can click on the symbol and a new empty row will be created.

If you are copying translations from Wikipedia, please note that the interwiki links in Wikipedia often link a theme in one language to a part of the theme or a narrower term to broader terms in other languages. For Wikipedia that makes sense but the linked titles are not necessarily direct translations of each other.

Next to expressions there is a column Identical meanings. Usually, the checkbox should stay checked. A translation of a DefinedMeaning should be marked as not identical (checkbox not checked) only when there is no exact translation for the definition in a language, but you want to suggest a good approximate translation (in general a hypernym or a hyponym).

To remove the link between an Expression and a Definition (what we sometimes call a SynTrans), check the box in the column that precedes the Expression in the section Synonyms and translations. Note that the Expression you are currently viewing can also be found in this list.

Note that this will not delete the Expression in question, it might still be a valid Expression for another Definition after all. If it is not a valid Expression (it is for example a list of Expressions or an Expression with a disambiguation in a parenthesis), then you should remove the Expression as well. To do this, you go to the page (yes, there is no easy link to it...) of the Expression, verify that the Expression really is orphaned (that is: when you view the page, it is empty), and then you can throw the Expression with help of the Remove tab on top.

Hint: If you plan to delete the expression, should it become orphaned by your edit, you can open the expressions page in a separate tab or window (most modern Browsers allow this from a menu that you get when clicking the link to the expression with the 'unusual' mouse button) before you do anything else. Then make your edit in the original tab or window, which will make the link to the expression go away. Next switch to the previously opened tab or window, reload its content so as to have the effect of our previous edit shown (if it does not, you're probably reloading from a cache) and if then the expression is indeed orphaned, delete it using Remove. Close the extra tab or window.

While versioning is in place, the capability to revert to an earlier stage with a single click (rollback) is not as yet.

Edit conflicts could lead to loss of some data, however it is very unlikely that it occurs. Editors do not get automatically informed of an edit conflict. Current code of conduct to minimize edit conflicts is to wait at least 10 minutes before editing a recently changed page, or to locate the editor on Help:IRC and verify that the editor in question is done.

Expressions created in the Synonyms and translations section and saved during an edit conflict tend to have their identical meaning flag unset, whatever the editor choose. This will however show up in the History for the page as the conflicting editor removing the identical meaning flag. See an example at jojo where Lazlo and Sannab conflicted on the creation of the Swedish Expression.

Definitions will be overwritten with old text during edit conflicts. The history may be consulted, and text from it manually copied and pasted to restore it.

The list of existing Relations in the section Relations ends with two boxes which are empty by default. Pressing and starting to type into the box in the column Relation type will bring up a drop down list of existing Relation types filtered by what you type (backspace and remove all letters to see the full list). Choose the desired type, and press and start to type into the box below Other defined meaning. This will populate a drop down box with all Expressions matching the entered letters.

The present relations are is part of theme, hyponym, hypernym, related term, antonyms, holonyms and meronyms. As the relations do not work both ways ( see[1]) the relations should/can be entered twice: a is narrower term of b, b is broader term of a.